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Imposter syndrome could be the biggest impediment to your career

23 Nov 2018

This week in Careers, we learned that even though things such as luck, opportunity, experience and training definitely factor into career success, your greatest obstacle could be yourself.

There are many important factors that affect success in the working world, but one of the most pernicious and insidious could, in fact, be yourself. More specifically, your imposter syndrome.

Tony Marron is a senior director for applied innovation and business development at Liberty IT. Through all the challenges he has faced on the road to attaining his current role, he has struggled the most with believing in himself and his abilities.

“Each time I made progress in my career, I would tell myself I got lucky or it was because I was the person with the greatest domain knowledge,” Marron said. “I would hold back from voicing my opinions because I thought they were not relevant or someone else had already thought of them. With the help of a few members of my team, they challenged and coached me into facing up to my confidence issues, and I started to believe in myself.”

This week, we also spoke to Cliona McCusker, managing director in Accenture’s technology business in Dublin and the programme sponsor for the company’s ReSUME programme. The programme is designed to usher ‘returners’ back into the working world at the same level they were at when they initially left employment.

We also caught up with Mastercard’s Sarah Kingston and discussed her experience on the graduate programme with the company. This eventually led to full-time employment, and she is now an associate software engineer.

In jobs news, Cork agritech company ApisProtect announced that it is to create 25 jobs. The company monitors the health of honeybee colonies to help beekeepers optimise pollination.

Continuing the environmental theme, recycling waste management software provider AMCS revealed 100 new roles in Limerick to support its lofty expansion ambitions.

This news broke amid the revelation from Morgan McKinley that Brexit is boosting the jobs economy. Irish job opportunities, according to the company’s Employment Monitor, increased by more than 10pc since last year.

For more on any of these stories, check out the links above.

Eva Short
By Eva Short

Eva Short was a journalist at Silicon Republic, specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.

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